od spoke to a man named Abraham, and told him, “If you will leave your country, and go to a new land that I will show you, I will bless you, and make you the founder of a great nation.”

So Abraham did as God had told him, and took his wife Sarah, and went into the land of Canaan. Abraham grew rich, but he had no son to be his heir. Sarah said to Abraham, “God has kept me from bearing a child—take my slave girl, Hagar, and maybe we will have children by her.” Abraham took Hagar as his wife, and she bore him a son, and named him Ishmael.

Abraham took the knife to slay his son.

When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God spoke to him again, and said, “I will give you and Sarah a son of your own, and make you a father of many nations. And you must circumcise your foreskin, and circumcise every man that is born in your family, as a sign of the agreement between us.”

Abraham did as God had told him, and circumcised himself, and Ishmael, and all of his male servants. And as God had said, Sarah became pregnant, and bore a son, and named him Isaac.

When Isaac grew older, God spoke to Abraham again, and said to him, "Abraham, take your son Isaac, and offer him as a burnt offering upon the mountain.”

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, cut the wood for the fire, and took his son Isaac with him to the mountain. Abraham had Isaac carry the wood; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and the two of them went together.

Isaac said to his father, "I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham answered, "My son, God will provide a lamb for a burnt offering."

When they came to the mountain, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood for the fire. Then he tied up his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar over the wood.

And Abraham reached out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him out of the sky, and said, "Abraham, do not lay your hand upon the boy, or do anything to him—for now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld your only son from me."

Then Abraham looked up, and behind him he saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.